Four-month closures of both Atlantic red snapper and grouper fishing are to be discussed at sessions of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) Nov. 30-Dec. 5 in Wilmington, N.C. If adopted, the highly controversial "emergency" shut-downs will run at least from Jan. 1 through April.

Anglers up and down the East Coast have angrily protested the closures, contending they are based on deeply flawed unreliable estimates from the '70s and earlier. Many fishermen say today's red snapper stocks are more abundant than in decades and that grouper populations also are in a strong uptrend. The closures would cause multi-million-dollar losses, according to the protests.

Protests from the recreational fishing community helped suspend red snapper-closure action at September’s Council meeting. But the Snapper Grouper Committee will again discuss and possibly act on a red snapper interim rule at the December meeting. Amendment 17 is expected to address red snapper fishing in the long term—as well as nine other fish species—but it’s still in its draft stages, says Kim Iverson, public information officer at the SAFMC. Before Amendment 17 is passed, a red snapper interim rule could be imposed by fisheries managers. A public comment period is set for Dec. 4 at the SAFMC meeting if any action is taken toward a red snapper interim rule.

On the grouper front, Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez has not yet responded to formal objections to the closure by the State of Florida, the dissenting members of the SAFMC, and by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, among others.

“The Secretary does not want to be in a position to be pre-judging the issue,” says Capt. Bill Kelly, of Islamorada, one of the lead opponents of the closure. “It’s not expected that his office will take action until after the December meetings, since the SAFMC still has the authority to revisit the issue and amend it.

“For the life of me,” continues Kelly, “I don’t understand why they wouldn’t wait for the SEDAR stock assessment for black grouper, which is scheduled to begin in June 2009, in order to substantiate their claims. The state of Florida will do the SEDAR for red grouper in 2009. If they do a SEDAR, we have to abide by it, which we would. But it is highly unlikely that any closure would be four-months long, which is unprecedented. Waiting for those SEDAR results would really take the pressure off the managers.”

More information is available in the Conservation Section of the Florida Sportsman Fishing Forum http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zeroforum?id=2. The Council agenda is available here: www.safmc.net/Portals/6/Meetings/Council/BriefingBook/Dec08/CouncilAgendaDec08.pdf .